This invention relates to coin dispenser equipment, and more particularly to an apparatus which can be mounted on a coin dispenser to provide for the manual dispensing of an additional denomination of coin.
Coin dispensing equipment is commonly employed at point of purchase locations, either in connection with a cash register or as a stand-alone unit, to provide the automatic dispensing of change to a customer. The coin dispensers typically employ a generally upright tray or magazine provided with side-by-side compartments which hold stacks of coins of different denominations. Upon command, the coin dispenser will typically dispense coins by removing one or more coins from the bottom of a stack in the magazine. The coins are ejected onto an inclined chute and roll out to one side of the coin dispenser. From that point a chute extension will typically direct the coin to a cup from which the customer can retrieve the coins. Originally, the mechanism for commanding the discharge of particular coins and the force to accomplish the ejection of coins was supplied by an operator depressing keys on a keyboard. At the present, the keys actuate switches which control solenoids that dispense the coins.
There are numerous patents disclosing coin dispenser mechanisms and control apparatus. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 2,857,920, issued Oct. 28, 1958 to Buchholz et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,922,427, issued Jan. 26, 1960 to Buchholz et al.
Although the coin trays or magazines are often removable, the coin compartments in the coin trays are each sized to accept only a particular denomination of coin. Furthermore, the mechanism which ejects the coins from a particular stack is sized to accommodate that specific denomination of coin. Therefore, the usual coin dispenser is incapable of accepting coins of denominations for which it was not originally designed without undergoing an extensive reworking. Nevertheless, there are occasions when it is necessary to accommodate an additional or a different denomination of coin than that for which the coin dispensers have been designed. An example of circumstances which can require such action is the newly introduced Susan B. Anthony dollar coin of the United States coinage system.
The coin dispenser attachment of this invention provides an apparatus which can accommodate another denomination of coin, and which can be attached to an existing coin dispenser for dispensing the additional denomination into the same coin cup which receives coins automatically ejected from the coin dispenser.